At that point, things in Europe weren't looking too bad. As a
note from Credit Suisse analysts led by Neville Hill released on
Friday puts it:

A broad range of cyclical indicators – business and consumer
confidence, PMIs – were relatively high, and rising. Corporate
spending plans were picking up. Consumer spending, thanks to the
boost to real incomes from lower oil prices and an improving
labour market, was buoyant. Credit growth to the real economy was
steadily improving. And although the ECB had to revise down its
inflation forecasts on the back of a lower oil price, core
inflation had risen through the course of last year to 1.0% by
Q4.

Sounds pretty good right? Well three months later, as Credit
Suisse puts it: "That's all changed." To put it more eloquently:
"The economic dataset facing the ECB is materially different" to
how it was in December.

In Credit Suisse's preview of the next week's ECB meeting, part
of its weekly "Playbook" note, the bank uses a whole heap of
charts to show just how much things have changed for the worse in
Europe since December, and generally how worrying the European
economic situation is right now. Here are four of the
best:Markit, Credit Suisse

The chart above shows that both service sector and manufacturing
PMIs — a measure of growth or contraction — have slipped since
December, getting closer to the 50 mark, which signals
stagnation.

As Credit Suisse puts it: "Business confidence and activity
indicators have weakened since the start of the year, as has
consumer confidence."

Thirdly, we've seen a big tightening in the markets:Bloomberg, Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse says: "Financial conditions have palpably
tightened. The stress in bank unsecured debt and equity prices
has endangered the tailwind to growth from easing credit
conditions for the real economy."

Finally, let's look at inflation:ECB,
Credit Suisse

Let's hear from Credit Suisse one last time: "The ECB will need
to lower its inflation forecasts again. Although oil is lower,
core inflation also looks to have peaked and is now falling
again."

So there we have it, inflation has peaked, businesses don't want
to spend and are losing confidence, and liquidity is pouring out
of the market. All in all,
it's a pretty bleak picture for Europe.